I have some fairly spendy amps (Matchless, Bogner, Victoria, Mesa, Carr, etc) and upon reading your question I *immediately* thought of my Dr. Z Carmen Ghia. Does not have reverb but a quality pedal could be added and be within your budget. Supremely fun and musical amp.

Have tried numerous Mesas (almost all of them actually) and none of these were in the same league as this Bad Cat. Don't get me wrong, a Mark V is a monster of an amp, but it costs way too much, and I don't need 1000 knobs and sounds. I need a musical amp which sounds GOOD clean AND overdriven. That' about it. I don't play high gain. But I like JCM800 kind of sounds as well. (in a Led Zep kind of context)

Have tried numerous Mesas (almost all of them actually) and none of these were in the same league as this Bad Cat. Don't get me wrong, a Mark V is a monster of an amp, but it costs way too much, and I don't need 1000 knobs and sounds. I need a musical amp which sounds GOOD clean AND overdriven. That' about it. I don't play high gain. But I like JCM800 kind of sounds as well. (in a Led Zep kind of context)

But dr. Z. may be worth a try!

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Used late 70's master volume JMP 2204 50W or early JCM800 2204 50W is your answer. I am now convinced that these amps just may be the best guitar amps on earth and the price is right too. If you are short on money, you can get the combo versions of these with 2x12 for under $1000.

Used late 70's master volume JMP 2204 50W or early JCM800 2204 50W is your answer. I am now convinced that these amps just may be the best guitar amps on earth and the price is right too. If you are short on money, you can get the combo versions of these with 2x12 for under $1000.

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King of rock amps imho....but if you know what you're doing, they'll do just about anything.
Got my 1980 jmp 2203 for $1250,and my Ceriatone jcm 800 HW for about $1200 shipped to Oz.